Tickford Racing is unsure what caused a freak engine failure for Cameron Waters which compounded a difficult weekend for the Ford squad in Darwin.

Waters was challenging for a top 10 finish in Sunday’s race before he ground to a halt on the start/finish straight just moments after the Safety Car had been deployed on Lap 55 due to debris on track.

The Monster Energy backed driver has endured more than his fair share of mechanical failures this season after suffering back-to-back axle failures in Races 13 and 14 at Winton.

Waters, who was occupying 13th position, confirmed that his engine gave a warning just after the halfway mark in the 70 lap race before it expired.

“I got a really good start, made up a few positions, and we were going pretty well for the first half of the race,” said Waters.

“Then a little past halfway the engine started changing note, slowly got worse, and it just expired under the Safety Car.

“We were hoping it’d make it to the finish but we knew that was unlikely. It’s still really frustrating because we could have had a decent result again today, just a bad way to end the weekend, but we’ll get it fixed up and go for a better one in Townsville.”

Tickford co-owner Rod Nash says the team is unsure what occurred on Waters’ engine but will investigate.

“It looked like a freak engine issue but not sure,” Nash told Speedcafe.com.

“That’s very disappointing for his car because that’s two rounds through no fault of him that a mechanical failure (has occurred), so that’s what I mean about when you’re down, you still get kicked.

“He was having a good run, he was in a good position, so he very much had a potential top 10 position.

“It looked like the last one (Winton failures) was strange; brand new axles. It’s just a design failure which has got nothing to do with us, it’s a supplier thing.

“The two companies that supply axles are respected suppliers but like anything, you get bad batches of things or process and unfortunately both those axles we put in Cam’s car failed and when we came back and tested the spares we had, they showed the same, so it was just a design problem and it’s been remedied by the manufacturer.

“So that’s that, and of course you come next race meeting and it’s got another issue. So look, we’ve just got to be tough and don’t go sulking in the corner.”

Waters’ drama highlighted a challenging weekend for Tickford with his 12th position in Race 15 and the same for Chaz Mostert in Race 16 its best results from the weekend.